The Council of Botanical & Horticultural Libraries is holding its annual meeting for 2020 in Washington DC, May 19-22.
Hosted by the Smithsonian Libraries and the National Library of Agriculture, the theme is “What’s next? The 21st-century botanical and horticultural library;” the conference will feature Dr. John Kress, Curator Emeritus, National Museum of Natural History, as the keynote speaker on botanical research in the Anthropocene, with a post-conference trip to Oak Spring Garden Library in Upperville VA on Saturday, May 23. http://www.cbhl.net/annual-meeting
The coming century will be challenging for libraries of all kinds, but botanical and horticultural libraries can anticipate a particularly important role as evidence mounts of the ways in which climate change increasingly affects our world, from large-scale agriculture to neighborhood gardens to the exploration/discovery/cultivation of new food sources. There will also be practical issues of work environments and how we store and preserve physical books as the physical world around us changes. We may already be facing expected (and unexpected) impacts from that challenge, as well as those arising from technological developments, new research needs, institutional contexts and/or support, public interest and access/outreach, staff training and expertise requirements, fund-raising issues, or simply how best to deal with an unpredictable future.
Short (20-minute) presentations on any aspect of current and future changes, challenges, and opportunities to libraries supporting botanical scholarship and horticultural activities are invited.
Please submit proposals of 100-150 words, including your name and e-mail contact information, to Leslie K. Overstreet, overstreetL@si.edu by March 15, 2020.
